Coursera launches a free Coursera for Campus Student campaign and HKU is eligible for participating in this campaign, therefore HKU students and staff now can enjoy a wide range of massive open online courses (MOOCs) sponsored by HKU and supported by Coursera. With the sponsorship, you may enroll in courses under the course catalog and get a certificate for free after course completion. This guide will introduce you to more details about learning with HKU Coursera.

What is Coursera?

Coursera is a worldwide MOOC learning platform that offers access to online courses, certifications, and degrees in various subjects. You can learn from leading universities and companies anywhere and anytime. Some universities join the Coursera partnership to enable university students to have free access to limited courses such as Guided Projects, Courses, and Specializations. HKU is one of the participating partners. 

Create an account with HKU license on Coursera

For current HKU students and staff, to create an account with HKU sponsorship on Coursera, you will need to fill in an application form. Following steps may help:

1. Click ‘Join for Free’ on https://www.coursera.org/;
2. Sign up for a new Coursera account with your HKU email and set a password in the pop-up window;
3. Join “Coursera for Campus” and send the registration form via this link: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?ueid=70153 (HKU Portal required);
4. Submit the form and wait for confirmation.

Start learning by identifying your learning goals

You can search for any specific courses with the keywords on the searching bar. Specifically, you can search courses by themes, categories, or the name of any university. On the course information page, you can see the course description, syllabus, instructor information, difficulty level, references, etc. You can also set your weekly goals and link the course reminder to your Google Calendar. You are advised to watch the video for more information.

Course management and Name verification

When you land on Coursera, you can access ‘My Courses’, ‘Profile’, ‘My Purchases’, ‘Settings’, ‘Updates’, ‘Accomplishments’, and ‘Help Center’ through the button (the one with your name on it) on the top-right corner.

You may need to verify your real name to ensure you are able to receive a certificate after you complete a course. Therefore, you may go to your account and verify your name with a few steps:

1. Go to ‘Settings’, and
2. Click on ‘Verify My Name’ and complete the verification.

You may watch the video for a demonstration.

Learning record preservation

You will lose all access to Coursera after graduation (for students) or resignation/retirement (for staff). Therefore, you are strongly advised to back up your learning records by changing your login email account from the HKU one to your personal one. You can add/change your personal email account by following these steps:

1. Click on the top-right side button (the one with your name on it);
2. Select and click on ‘Settings’;
3. Check out the section ‘Personal Account’ and add an alternative email;
4. Save the setting.

Note: Please make sure you did not register a Coursera account with your alternative email previously. Otherwise, you cannot combine the learning records from two existing email addresses.

Four types of learning programs on Coursera

Coursera offers four types of learning programs, Guided Project, Course, Specialization, and Professional Certificate respectively.

• Guided Project: Guided Project provides step-by-step instructions and you may complete a Guided Project within 2 hours. You can learn job-relevant skills guided by a subject matter expert and may earn a shareable e-certificate after completing a Guided Project.
• Course: A Course usually includes video lectures, auto-graded and peer-reviewed assignments, and discussion forums. Courses are provided by universities or organizations all over the world. You may earn a shareable e-certificate after completing a Course. 
• Specialization: A Specialization includes several courses to support learners to earn a specific career skill. After completing a series of rigorous courses, you can receive a shareable Specialization Certificate.
• Professional Certificate: Professional Certificate provides knowledge and skills to help learners to start a new career. There are several courses in one Professional Certificate and you can apply new skills to hands-on projects. After completing, you can receive a career credential.

Add Certificates to your LinkedIn Profile

You will receive a course certificate to show your accomplishment. After receiving the e-certificate(s), you can add to your LinkedIn profile to showcase your knowledge and professional achievements. 

You can find your certificates in ‘Accomplishments’, then click ‘Add to LinkedIn’ to view the details of the certificate. Following steps will guide you to add the certification details to your LinkedIn profile:

1. Go to your LinkedIn homepage and log into your LinkedIn account;
2. Click on ‘Me’ at the top-right corner and then click ‘View Profile’;
3. Click ‘Recommended’ and ‘Add licenses & certifications’;
4. Fill in the blanks with the Coursera course and certification details (i.e., Name, Issued Organization, credential ID, and URL);
5. Save the change.

You can also refer to the video for more information.

HKU Courses on Coursera and edX

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) launches courses on the e-learning platforms Coursera and edX. You can browse the HKU web page – https://tl.hku.hk/hkuonline/ for the course lists. You can also view courses on two platforms:

• HKU Courses and Specializations on Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/hku
• HKU Courses and Specializations on edX: https://www.edx.org/school/hkux

Managing Study and Work with Digital Tools: Notion, OneNote and Evernote

Whether fully online mode or blended mode, digital tools can help teachers and students manage projects and resources across different subjects more effectively and efficiently. This article explores and compares the prominent features of three digital tools: Notion, OneNote, and Evernote. HKU teachers and students may see this article for a reference to select tools to help facilitate work and study. 

Access to three apps

To sign up for these apps, you can visit official websites and create an account with your HKU email. Notion now offers an educational free plan link for educators and students, and HKU teachers and students can enjoy Microsoft OneNote for free with the HKU license for Microsoft Office 365. There is no educational plan offered by Evernote but there are still some good features to help users to manage work or study.

How digital tools help teachers and students

For teachers, these tools may help:

• create a 24/7 digital learning space for students to access;
• enable student collaboration and extended learning outside the classroom;
• track students’ learning progress;
• design and provide summative and formative feedback to students.

For students, these tools may help:

• organize school work and projects;
• take notes for on-the-spot exercises;
• visualize learning progressions.

Features: Similarities and differences

The table below compares features among Notion, OneNote and Evernote. You can refer to the given information to help you select the tool that suits your teaching or learning needs:

After the comparisons, it shows that Evernote helps users to organize work and study but with limited functions and features for free. Notion and OneNote may benefit teaching and learning activities more. The following highlights more functions and features that teachers and students can realize with the tool Notion or OneNote:

For teachers who are interested in using e-learning tools in the classroom but still need some help, you are welcome to book a consultation with Technology-enriched Learning Initiative (TELI) for more ideas by contacting via enquiry@teli.hku.hk.

Extended readings

• User Guide to Notion for Education: https://tl.hku.hk/2021/11/user-guide-to-notion-for-education/ 
• User Guide to OneNote for Education: https://onenoteforteachers.com
• User Guide to Evernote for Education: https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/sections/204079098-Ways-To-Use-Evernote

Written by Mr Abdul Hasan Ai Asyari, Ms Han Xiurong

Reviewed by Ms Cindy Liang, Dr Leon Lei

Message from Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative
 

Registration

As the generation of digital natives, our students are accustomed to immersing themselves in virtual environments for entertaining and socializing every day. Education should also make a quick response in constructing a fantasy learning context where students could perform multiple learning tasks beyond the reality restriction. In an educational setting, fantasy has often been used in the form of narrative-based scenarios to engage learners and immerse them in virtual activities.

In this session, we will present three cases of using fantasy context in different learning activities to enhance students’ learning performance, course engagement, and provide a joyful learning experience. One educational technology software Pixton will be applied to set up the fantasy context. With easy-to-build illustrated comics, storyboards, and custom characters, the three cases utilized different functions to build fantasy context from course assessment, in-class collaborative learning, to overall gamification. This session will also introduce practical guidelines and pedagogical implications to inform better use of the fantasy context and the software itself.

Message from Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative
 

Registration

Since the early stage of the pandemic in early 2020, teachers have had to adopt online, hybrid flexible (HyFlex) or other new modes of teaching. Teachers are often excited to design learner-centred and sustainable online/virtual/blended learning experiences with cutting-edge learning technologies. However, teachers often need adequate technical/pedagogical support for the development beyond emergency virtual instruction.

“Instructional Design Extension Assistant (IDEA)” is a UGC-funded scheme implemented by TELI from 2021 to 2023. Instructional designers co-develop virtual instructional materials with teachers for blended learning. The scheme supports teachers transforming their blended instruction in the next stage, based on the scholarly research from the learning science field.

In this webinar we would like to showcase several cases from different Faculties in the e-learning co-development process. In particular, we would like to introduce several useful e-learning/teaching tools succinctly:

• Sustainable education (Learning analytics)
• Collaborative group learning activities (Miro)
• Student knowledge management (Notion)
• Self-paced learning modules (Open edX)

This webinar is supported by the UGC Special Grant for Strategic Development of Virtual Teaching and Learning.

Message from Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative
 
Part I

Part II

With the increasing digitisation of classrooms, there is constant interest to adopt emergent technologies into teaching and learning. Virtual reality (VR) is one of the new technologies that piqued the interest of educators around the world with the promise to create new learning experiences. It is seen as a valuable tool to create immersive environments and provide a student-centered learning experience through interactions.

While the benefits of AR are apparent, widespread adoption of this technology remains a work in progress. There are many practical issues and concerns yet to be addressed, such as ease of use, scalability and comparative effectiveness. As such, steps taken by pioneers in adopting VR would be insightful for mindful educators.

In this two-part webinar we have invited professional educators from different institutions to share their experience in using VR technology in their classes. In particular, our guest speakers will cover the following topics:

• Part I – 28 March 2022 (Monday) 14:30 – 15:30 (HKT, UTC+8)
  • Secondary students using VR for heritage discovery
  • Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning with VR
  • Leveraging VR creation in cultural heritage education
• Part II – 4 April 2022 (Monday) 12:30 – 13:30 (HKT, UTC+8)
  • Practical VR & AR in studio-based learning for architectural design
  • Using web-based VR for crime scene investigation studies
  • Large-scale VR adoption in medical anatomy classes

Speakers details and more information can be found on the event webpages:

https://eteaching4u.org/virtual-reality-for-teaching-learning-and-assessment-part-i/

https://eteaching4u.org/virtual-reality-for-teaching-learning-and-assessment-part-ii/ 

Acknowledgement

This webinar is supported by:

– UGC Special Grant for Strategic Development of Virtual Teaching and Learning – Inter-institutional Collaborative Activities Projects

– IEEE Education Week

– IEEE Region 10 Education Activities Committee

– IEEE Hong Kong Section Education Chapter